Blues manager Paul Cook says he’s made his decisions on the players currently at the club and that nothing that happens in the final three games of the season will change his mind, adding that he could have released some of the squad with no regrets in his frustration following last Saturday’s dismal 0-0 home draw with AFC Wimbledon.
Quizzed on whether anything which happens in the matches at Swindon on Saturday, Shrewsbury next Tuesday and then at home to Fleetwood on the final day could change his thoughts on any individual, Cook said: "No, I’ve made my mind up 100 per cent. All the decisions have been made.
"I’m tired of listening to feeble excuses about why we don’t play well, it’s always somebody’s fault. It’s like pass the blame, pass the parcel for blame. Eventually the parcel has to stop with someone and they have to stand up and be counted.
"As a manager of a football team last Saturday at half-time, that was a performance that gets every manager in the country sacked.
"I won’t be a part of that. There’s not a chance I’ll be a part of that. I’ve watched Plymouth, Bristol Rovers, Lincoln for a period of the game, MK Dons and latterly Wimbledon all come to Portman Road and dominate the game. Come to Portman Road and dominating football games? Are you messing? Come on. It’s not going to carry on.”
Is he keen to do his summer business early? "I 100 per cent get where our supporters are at. We don’t even score a goal at the minute. I’ve never been around a football team like this, and it’s not me going back looking at what Paul Cook’s done, everything in the past is totally irrelevant.
"This is about the future. I’ve never seen a team not win second balls and show a character to win a game like we offered at Portman Road last Saturday.
"So whilst it’s great to speak about the future and what will happen tomorrow, I think we’ve got to stay in the painful today at the minute. And it is very painful.”
When will news of players being released or options taken be announced? "If I could have done it last Saturday at a quarter to five I would have done it, and I’d have done it with no regrets.
"There are processes that you have to go through now and then processes will be taken with everything in mind, players’ well-being, conducting ourselves properly as a club and not on an emotional one.
"The emotional one is your pride, it’s hurt and anger and as a manager I want to show everyone how much I’m hurt.
"That’s gone now. We’re in the realms of 10 days left of the season. The release list will come out, the people who can leave the club will come out and we’ll start signing players and, as they say, it will be a case of out with the old and in with the new. That’s 100 per cent what will happen at this club.”
So, as it stands, no one’s been spoken to about their future? Not current players or any incoming signings? "You lads will always poke and prod me in relation to what you would like me to say, what you want me to say.
"I like to think a lot of the time I represent our supporters. When I represent our supporters I can only tell them that I am up there with their unhappiness, I’m totally with you. Unfortunately, whatever I say or do at the minute will just fall on deaf ears.”
Cook will have had opinions on at least some of the current squad when he came in. Have those thoughts changed? Have some drifted in and out of his thoughts?
"That’s a very, very good question,” he reflected. "One of the answers I would give you, I’m actually trying to throw everyone under the bus at the minute in relation to how I feel because that’s how I feel.
"But within that, I’ve managed long enough to know that we do have some good players in the building, of course we do.
"But at the minute I think we’d all suggest we’re all struggling to find them, aren’t we? Let’s hope that the winds of change will blow through the building and the reality is that next year we’ll have a team on the pitch that we can be very, very proud of.”
While it’s expected there will be a player exodus unlike any previous summer, it’s likely a handful of the existing squad will still be at Portman Road. Is Cook confident that those players will be refreshed and their hearts and minds will be with him next season?
"Watch this space! Watch this space,” Cook said. "At the end of the day, I’ve never feared anything I’ve done as a football manager. I don’t fear getting beat. I fear not having a team on the pitch that reflects me.
"At all my previous clubs, I’ve always had teams on the pitch that reflect me. Going forward, hopefully as soon as I can, I’ll put on the pitch that reflects me, that I know our club and our owners and our fans and everybody in Ipswich will be proud of.
"Today, I’m an Ipswich town manager that’s hurting, I’m not doing well enough in my own job and I always look at myself first - what can I do better? One hundred per cent ‘what can I do better?’
"And then when I look out at the training ground areas, when we travel on the team bus, how much do I trust the people behind me. At the minute I don’t trust many people behind me.”
Town had 27 professional players out of contract this summer, including a number of senior members of the squad. Several youngsters have already departed along with Alan Judge, who would have triggered another year on his deal automatically had he started another league game.
Asked whether he is confident the club can avoid getting into a position with so many players coming out of contract again, he said: "Going forward, it’s a situation, especially with the new ownership coming in, and Mark Ashton coming in, our new CEO, that time of change is coming, and it really is coming.
"We’ve got to get everybody get in place and we’ve got to let people settle into their jobs. The functioning of the club going forward has got to happen.
"But in my world, we can’t be in any worse place than we’re in today. And I’m very much part of that. Make no mistake about it. I am devastated about what I’ve seen over the last 13 games.
"As a manager it falls at my door as well. But eventually as a manager the team replicate you. That team at the minute, our team at the minute does not replicate me in any shape or form.
"So going forward, we’ve got to finish the season properly, we’ve got to conduct ourselves properly, we’ve got to do everything correctly. But as you can work out, it will not be allowed to carry on.”